This big-budget feature from director Brad Armstrong is a zesty blend of sex, storytelling, campy horror and mild metaphysics, revolving around that hardy old standby, an ancient Egyptian curse.

Randy Spears, as an Indiana Jones type digging in Egypt, unearths a treasure trove: the tomb of Neferkala, a queen from the 10th dynasty.

The well-preserved queen, lusciously embodied by Kaylani Lei, suddenly wakes up and orders Spears to give her head. After 3,000 years, she's still wet and juicy. Then she zaps him into an instant mummy. Spears' native guide dynamites the cave, sending the queen back to the netherworld.

Flash forward 20 years to Los Angeles and Jessica Drake as Spears' daughter. The queen's tomb has been reopened, and she's on her way to Egypt to probe her father's mysterious death. Finding the sarcophagus, she takes it back to the States, inadvertently unleashing the undead monarch upon the modern world.

Kaylani descends on Hollywood Blvd., where she fits right in with the late-night party animals and encounters Jessica at a disco. After an initial altercation, they become allies in an effort to rejoin the queen's spirit with that of her murdered beloved, Nomron.

Jessica enters a time-warp orgy in the club. We cut back and forth between seven fuckers today and the same people 3,000 years ago. It's a well-shot, spirited orgy, too, with Jessica having anal sex with Armstrong, ending with then and now cum swaps.

It turns out that Jessica's boyfriend, played by Eric Masterson, is the reincarnation of Nomron. In a well-edited sequence, the women make love to both Erics at once, the blond modern and the dark ancient. The idea of love transcending death and time is seriously presented and actually rather moving.

The obviously substantial budget can be seen in the meticulous sets (as usual, Armstrong was his own art director), varied locations, large cast (including some excellent, uncredited non-sex actors) and a shooting schedule that allowed the writer-director to tell his story convincingly.

The production was shot in Hi-Definition by Francois Clousot, and even though previewed on low-definition VHS, its visual excellence is apparent and will surely pop to vibrant life on a high-end receiver.

Pre-noms: Best Video Feature. Best Actress: Jessica Drake, Kaylani Lei. Best Supporting Actor: Randy Spears. Best Videography: Francois Clousot. Best Editing. Best Art Direction. Best Group Sex Scene: Orgy (Jessica Drake, Kelly Kline, Ice LaFox, Gia Jordan, Brad Armstrong, Kris Knight). Best Threeway: Kaylani Lei, Jessica Drake, Eric Masterson.

Retailing: First-rate feature for the entertainment-minded.